A Happy Place
by 1337thegamer420
Summary: One-Shot fanfic. Hoffmann (Previously known as Favian) is visited by an old friend and he is happy to see him.


Hoffmann sat on the grass, leaning against the tree behind him as the sun shined in his direction. He was enjoying a delicious sandwich with ham, cheese, and salad. However, despite all of that, he couldn't shake of this feeling, the feeling of guilt and grief. The feeling hurt him in the inside, like a hard punch to the guts. He looked down, ceasing his chewing motion. However, he then heard the sound of bushes rustling behind him, behind the tree.

Could it have been a bird? A squirrel? Another critter from the woods? He stood up from and spot and walked around the tree until he noticed something. A short, shadowy person stood behind the tree, picking up walnuts off the ground and putting them in what seems to be a weave basket. Hoffmann could make out some features of this figure as some light shined on the person's right cheek, revealing white fur around the cheeks and brown fur on the head. The figure was almost as short as a fire hydrant, but, a couple of inches away from that height.

The figure stopped picking up the walnuts and looked at Hoffmann with its expression being hidden by the shadow of the tree. Wanting to break the silence, Hoffmann spoke first "H-Hey, err… what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I'm just picking up some walnuts for my aunt. She usually searches for them here. Sorry if I was annoying you or anything" The stranger's voice sounded like an innocent little boy that came from a good home.

"What? No… I just heard the bushes rustling and I got interested. For some strange reason, I don't know why I'm here…"

"Everyone has reasons to be somewhere, no matter what." The boy spoke again.

"But… why? Sorry if I ramble all of the sudden, but, I never knew why there is a goal to everything in life. I mean, thinking about it, I feel like I haven't done anything in my life anything useful, helpful, or just important… Am I… a good person?"

There was a long silence between the two. Hoffmann knew he sounded crazy. Why did he wanted to say that stuff to a small child? Was it due to being in the moment? He just sighs with a hint of sadness before turning away. "I'm sorry if I said things that you won't understand. I jus-"

"That's not true, Hoffmann."

Hoffmann's eyes widen by his name being called. He never told this kid his name at all. The boy continued. "You have done good for everyone. Your friends, families, and the people that you cared about the most. It's not the objective that matters, but, the trip that you took to get to that objective. You have always loved everyone and showed sympathy to everyone that were in trouble, good or bad. You were kind to everyone." 

"…"

"And, not only that, but, you have something that not that many people have."

"W-What's that?"

"A heart."

Hoffmann placed his hand on his chest to the spot where his heart was located. He looked at the opposite direction where the boy was and he saw a trail. A trail that led to the woods. But, then, looked back at the boy. "W-Wait, I think I have seen you…" He looked back at the trail. "I-I gotta go. I gotta get back to the people that I care about the most through the trail."

"But, you came here from that trail…"

Hoffmann stopped dead on his track, gasping once in shock before looking back at the boy. "W-Wait… y-you're…"

The colors around him started to be more vibrant and alive. The shadow that covered the boy slowly disappeared, revealing the hidden expression to be a smile. He was a brown squirrel with a pinkish red nose, and had a big tail that was taller than him.

Hoffmann eyes widen. Tears started forming on his eyes. "Sk- Skippy…" His lips quiver as he spokes those words before he knelt down and gave Skippy a huge heartily hug as tears started strolling down his cheeks. "Skippy… I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry" The painful feeling of sadness and grief started to slowly disappear from him… "I missed you. I have cried ever since the incident in pain and sorrow. I missed you so much, little bro." The sadness and grief have disappeared… instead, they were replaced with joy and happiness. The tears hit the grass.

"I missed you as well, big bro…" Skippy didn't resist the kindness, instead, he embraced the hug by hugging the dog back with a little bit of tears forming on his eyes as well. Those words had broken the dam within Hoffmann as he led out more and more tears to the point that marks of lines appeared on his cheeks from all of the watery emotions. He held him tight while Skippy hugged him back with tears also forming on his face.

"Heh, seems that you two are happy to see each other." A familiar, female voice spoke behind Hoffmann. The second that voice spoke; he knew who said them. He raised his head and looked behind him to see… Slappy Squirrel, wearing her green hat, carrying her pink purse on one arm and on the other carrying her green umbrella.

"Slappy! Oh god…" he proceeded to hug the gray, female squirrel with a hug that was the same that he gave to Skippy, heartily. "It's been a long time… since I last saw you. Y-You still look the same as I remember you."

"And you still act the same like the last time I saw you. It's good to see you again, kid." Slappy said, hugging Hoffmann back as the dog sniffled while tears hit the floor. Slappy joined into the hug as well. It was beautiful sight. It was like a happy reunion of a family that haven't seen each other for years. Their bond was unbreakable.

They finally released each other from their grasp after their long, unbreakable hug. Slappy was the first one to speak. "Come on, kids, let's go back home. I'm making some walnut pie!"

"Yay!" Skippy and Hoffmann said in excitement before Slappy smiled and walked down another path with the boys following behind. The other path led to a familiar house that was built within a tree.

For the first time since years, Hoffmann felt like he was home.


End file.
